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2014 in Review: Reading and Writing Highlights

I enjoyed 2014 and spent much of the year learning new things and building up an exceptional Product team at CenturyLink. Additionally, I spoke at events in Seattle, London, Houston, Ghent, Utrecht, and Oslo, delivered Pluralsight courses about Personal Productivity and DevOps, and tech-reviewed a book about SIgnalR. Below are some of the writing projects I enjoyed most this year, and a list of the best books I read this year.

Favorite Blogs and Articles

After seven years, I still look forward to adding pieces to this blog, in addition to writing for InfoQ, my company’s blog, and a few other available outlets.

[Forbes] Get Ready For Hybrid Cloud. This Forbes piece kicked off a series of posts about Hybrid Cloud and practical advice for those planning these deployments.

[CTL Blog] Recognizing the Challenges of Hybrid Cloud: Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV. In this four-part series, I looked at all sorts of hybrid cloud challenges (e.g. security, data integration, system management, skillset) and proven solutions for each.

[My Blog] Richard’s Top 10 Rules for Meeting Organizers. The free-wheeling startup days are over for me, but I’ve kept that mindset even as I work for a much larger company now. Meetings are a big part of most company cultures, but your APPROACH to them is what determines whether meetings are soul-sucking endeavors, or super-useful exercises.

[My Blog] Using SnapLogic to Link (Cloud) Apps. Cloud-based integration continues to gain attention, and SnapLogic is doing some pretty cool stuff. I played around with their toolset a bit, and wrote up this summary.

[My Blog] DevOps, Cloud, and the Lean “Wheel of Waste.” I’ve admittedly spent more time this year thinking about organizational structures and business success, so this post (and others) reflect that a bit. Here, I look at all the various “wastes” that exist in a process, and how cloud computing can help address them.

[My Blog] Comparing Cloud Provisioning, Scaling, Management. I love hands-on demos. In these three posts, I created resources in five leading clouds and tried out all sorts of things.

Favorite Books

Of the couple dozen books that I read this year, these stood out the most.

Competing Against Time: How Time-Based Competition is Shaping Global Markets. This book may be twenty five years old, but it’s still pretty awesome. The author’s thesis is that “providing the most value for the lowest cost in the least amount of time is the new pattern for corporate success.” The book focuses on how time is a competitive advantage that improves productivity and responsiveness. Feels as true today as it was in 1990.

How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big. Love him or hate him (I happen to love him), Dilbert-creator Scott Adams is someone who challenges convention. In this enjoyable read, Adams delightfully recounts his many failures and his idea that “one should have a system instead of a goal.” Lots of interesting advice that will make you think, even if you disagree.

Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action. The author states that “people don’t buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it.” He then proceeds to explain how companies fail to motivate staff and engage customers by focusing on the wrong things. The best leaders, in Sinek’s view, have a clear sense of “why,” and motivate customers and employees alike. Good read and useful insight for existing and aspiring leaders.

Creativity, Inc: Overcoming the Unseen Forces that Stand in the Way of True Inspiration. Probably the best “DevOps” book that I read all year, even though it has nothing to do with technology. This story from the founder of Pixar is fantastic. His thesis is that “there are many blocks to creativity, but there are active steps we can take to protect the creative process.” There’s some great insight into Pixar’s founding, and some excellent lessons about cross-functional teams, eliminating waste, and empowering employees.

The Art of War. A classic strategy book that I hadn’t read before. It’s a straightforward – but thoughtful – guide to military strategy that relates directly to modern business strategy.

Service Innovation: How to Go from Customer Needs to Breakthrough Services. What does it actually mean to bring innovation to a service? This book looks at customer-centric ways to identify unmet needs and deliver outcomes that the customer would consider a success. Very helpful perspective for those delivering any type of service to a (internal or external) customer base.

Mark Twain: A Life. This was a long, detailed book for someone with a long, adventurous life. A fascinating account of this period, the book recounts Twain’s colorful rise to global renown as a leading literary voice of America.

The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement. The excellent DevOps book “The Phoenix Project” owes a lot to this book. The Goal tells a fictitious tale of a manufacturing plant manager who faces higher expenses and long cycle times. The hero discovers new ways to optimize an entire system by digging into bottlenecks, capacity management, batch sizing, quality, and much more. It’s a fun read with tons of lessons for software practitioners who face similar challenges, and can apply similar solutions.

Jim Henson: The Biography. An outstanding, meticulously-detailed biography of one of the most talented and creative individuals of the last century. Great insight into team-building, quiet leadership, and taking risks.

A heartfelt thanks to the 125,000+ visitors (and 207,000+ page views!) this year to the blog. It’s always a pleasure to meet many of you in real life, or in other virtual forums like Twitter. Here’s to the year ahead, and more opportunities to be inspired by technology and the the people around us.